...e oppressed or for any good cause, he rises above all places of high preferment, and can afford to look down on them all. ( mihi supra tribunatus et praeturas et consulatus ascendere videor. ) Maternus , who has retired from the public forum to write tragedies, justifies his course on the ground that the influence of the poet is far more lasting than that of the orator; and he is so far from asking ...